Industry stalwart Clive Gardner is bowing out of petrol retailing after more than 54 years, selling his family’s six Gardner Retail forecourts to Roadside Real Estate for £17.8 million, according to the Abingdon, Oxfordshire-based property company.
Roadside Real Estate says the acquisition is the “first of several near-term opportunities” it is “evaluating in line with its stated strategy of building a scalable petrol forecourt and convenience retail business”. The company already owns one petrol station, a former Sainsbury’s site in Coventry, as well as several non-forecourt retail properties as part of a joint venture.
The Gardner Retail petrol stations in the Southwest of England sell approximately 22 million litres of fuel annually, generating £33.9m revenue. The business reported £2.1m adjusted EBITDA in the 2025 financial year.
Completion is expected on February 26, and the deal will provide a “scalable platform for further consolidation within the roadside retail sector”, Roadside Real Estate says in a statement on its website.
The company’s chief executive Charles Dickson says the acquisition marks “the start of a new chapter”, as the business builds a “high-quality, income-generative portfolio of modern roadside retail assets”.
Roadside Real Estate is quoted on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market and describes itself as a “real estate business focused on building and scaling a high-quality portfolio of modern roadside retail assets, including modern EV charging infrastructure”.
The purchase price includes around £4 million of debt, which Roadside Real Estate will take on. The company says it will fund the acquisition through an extension of its debt facility with Tamcourt, a business also controlled by Dickson and his family.
Gardner joined the industry aged 16 as an Esso management trainee. He opened his first site 31 years ago in Huntley, Gloucestershire, and his forecourts have won numerous awards over the years.
His two children – Emma and Ashton – have taken over much of the day to day running of the business in recent years, but he has remained involved.
His Huntley forecourt underwent a £1.1 million refurbishment last year, with a walk-in beer cave, an internal laundry and EV charging. The site won top loo in this year’s Forecourt Trader Awards.
